₦airaland Forum

Not that I know of. It's his site. It isn't #1 for nothing. Not that I support it being turned off but I have resolved not to ask

DISCLAIMER: This is not a bad belle post, neither is it a post aimed at drumming up tribal sentiments. I am actually quite curious:

http://www.startupsnigeria.com/2009/03/100-best-web-developers-from-nigeria/

After you read this, come back and let's talk:

1) what is their basis for the names posted.  It is cronyism/favoritism?

2) Are there no good south-south developers, for instance?

3) Is it any wonder that most of the names are from one ethnic group? what does this say of the poster?

Come on folks, let's nail talk

It's because you guys are drinking too much red bull and eating too much at mr. biggs, chicken capitol, etc

back to the post at hand:
IMHO, an experienced web developer is one who has worked on a variety of websites (as in different genres) for at least a period of 5 years and in that time frame, has also had the opportunity to work with different technologies and frameworks in the process and can look at a problem and come up with an efficient solution usually right away. This definition also implies that one could have 100 years experience yet still not know anything - I have seen this in action, trust me

Note the use of "and" in my definition. Again, you don't have to know them all but exposure them all helps. I for one have never (and hope to never, but I digress ) used dot net but if a job opportunity knocks and I need to know it, I will study it, use it to spice up my resume/cv (even if I never use it again).

Again, just my humble opinion for which I am willing to agree to disagree. Now back to Read Only Mode

quadrillo, That's right, lol.

I wonder why Seun turned off RSS. I used to find this very useful. That way, as quadrillo has said, rather than read everything, I can just monitor posts based on what I see in my RSS feed.

Oh well.

For those who have chatted with me for a while, you know that I can't stop ranting and raving about UEFA's slideshow/photo gallery:

http://www.uefa.com/photos/index.html

Sure, the main photo might be to large and the whole thing might take a while to load, depending on your locale, but come on, you can't beat the user experience, the quality of the photos (it's like you are sitting in front row) and the layout.

Well, don't let me influence your thoughts. Visit the page, check it out and if you don't like it, do 2 things: state why and show us a better alternative

Oh, don't bother showing lightbox (1, 2,e tc). IMHO it is played out due to overuse

I don't think one has to know all the web dev languages known to man to be called an experienced web developer. That's like saying that in those kung fu movies of old, one person knows all the styles. Typically, they all know one main style and one "hidden" one as backup. Just My Humble Opinion.

Okay back to Read Only Mode. I will definitely chime in but for now, I will keep on listening.

Yes ! its painful ma ,  as you can see am only testing stuffs as a newbiee!

segsa, cos of your constant reference to being a "newbie", I have been inspired if you will to post this thread:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-245668.0.html

My point: I think that reference has been overused and/or abused.  It's not like a baby where you know that won't walk for at least 6 or 7 months, won't talk till they are at least 1.5 years or won't read till they start school.  At some point, even if it is only one site you have to your name, that reference needs to seize being a part of your lexicon.

My point: Let's stop selling ourselves short.  IMHO, such references can actually become part of our subconscious and hinder our ability to progress. For example, let's say you get the opportunity to land a N10million job. Are you going to turn it down just because you are a "newbie"? Chew on that for a sec.

Check out the post, contribute and others should contribute as well.

Every now and then, I will hear the reference to "newbie" as a reason why a website looks a certain way. I have heard it on here so many times that I am forced to post this and ask: What makes one a newbie or a veteran/experienced? Is it number of sites developed? years of experience? clients served? wealth of knowledge? Number of companies worked at? What is it?

I have my answer and am willing to agree to disagree but it would be nice to get your opinions on this.

Contribute please.

Yes, not many browsers will implement xhtml strict plus in general, it is a pain anyways. That is y i go for transitional. Will I ever go strict? Probably not but as they say, never say never

Yep, a website is only as secure as the developer who coded it. Like a computer, a site and its security features become outdated the minute you launch it.

If it is heavy load, then the web developers should have included load testing as part of the project. I mean, I bet CNN.com has more visitors than the jamb site yet on inauguration day, I was able to watch Obama being sworn in via video stream on their site and it was flawless. How many visitors do you think the jamb site gets on its highest day?

1) The way you have defined your DTD is wrong. It should be:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

2) You have 13 warnings on your home page. How do i know? I use the web developer toolkit plugin for firefox

3) Your layout is definitely much better than the eye sore that was there before. Good job!

Nice layout. By the way, I just sent you 5 blank emails, my way of saying you should do something about your form validation

You need to send such an email as HTML mail. There are plenty tutorials on google on this. By the way, if you are running out of ideas with respect to the layout/design of a newsletter, there are also plenty of free newsletter templates for you to use

Good luck!

Hmm, this is pretty interesting. I will adopt ROM (Read Only Mode) on this one.

Make I go order some sallah suya, dey sidon look

I think it has to do with your english, no offense. I have read it at least 10 times and I am still confused. Having said that, if I understand what you mean, just go to youtube, towards the right of the video, you should c code in a gray box that starts with <object>. Copy that entire line and paste it here, then save it and you should be good to do, hopefully.

kai! see them leading lambs to the slaughter house. Where can I find money so I can relocate to naija and teach the real deal?

pie1ct,

I will be looking out for the link.  Welcome back once again.  I just visited webmag and noticed you changed the skin.  Looks good as always.  I also browsed a few articles and they are as always, well written too.

How's traffic to webmag? Seems like it should be getting a lot.

welcome back once again.  I for one miss your posts

Good luck!

http://www.independentngonline.com/poli/ente/article03

Social media marketing is the rave right now. Facebook is sexy, Twitter is fast and easy, and MySpace - well, you're nobody without a MySpace page. So where does that leave good old blogging? A has been? But, not so fast. Blogging is still one of the best ways to make money online.

If you want to make money blogging in 2009, the following 11 blogging tips offer some sage advice on how to go about it.

To make money blogging in 2009, get back to basics

1: Create A Posting Schedule

It makes it easier for readers to follow you; indeed, look forward to your posts. If your schedule is erratic, it will take you that much longer - if not ever - to build up a loyal following:

Posting Schedule Tip: Try to do so at least once a week.

2: Post From Experience

Did you know that information is the best selling product on the web? And, much of it is written in a "how to" format by authors who've experienced it first-hand.

So share your experiences with readers using the first person (i.e. "I". Readers will come to know, like and trust the info you provide. And, that will make it much easier for you to sell to them (which is the ultimate goal, after all). It will also build up your credibility as an authority in your niche.

3: Choose A Niche

Speaking of niche - choose a niche and stick with it. It's where the money is. There's so much info on the web that it's impossible to be everything to everybody. So, clearly define your niche and always post with the wants and needs of the audience in mind.

4: Interact With Other Popular Blogs In Your Niche

The most effective way to do this is by commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. Make your posts relevant. Don't just post to post. This is pointless and is a waste of time. Use the space to leave helpful, relevant feedback.

5: Use Good Grammar

I don't care how good your post is, if it's poorly written, you will lose credibility. Never underestimate the power of good writing.

6: Get A Clean Design

You don't have to be a web designer to have an effective blog. After all, readers come for your information. If design is not your forte, don't sweat it. Just use a clean design that's easy to navigate. A clean, simple design is like a little black dress - it's classy - timeless.

7: Get Plugins

Plugins are things like "most relevant posts," "most recent posts," etc. They encourage readers to hang around longer. The longer a visitor stays on your blog, the more likely it is they will buy from you - whether right now or at some time in the future.

Blogging Tip #8: Blog With SEO In Mind

What I mean by this is, center each post around a keyword phrase. And, the writing doesn't have to be bad to "force a phrase," just keep SEO in mind when you blog.

Many bloggers forget this. They tend to think in terms of articles or web content when they think of SEO. But, the concepts apply to blogging as well.

9: Don't Forget To Market Your Blog

Don't stop at posting. Get mileage out of your posts. Employ "sexy marketing", i.e. social book marking and networking. Tweet them on Twitter, post them to Facebook and MySpace, stumble them on StumbleUpon, etc.

Social book marking and networking tip: These are time-consuming marketing strategies because you have to interact with these communities to make this type of marketing effective. So just keep this in mind when you start with them.

10: Personalise Your Blog

Be you; inject some of your personality.

11: Don't Give Up

Blogging is more time consuming than many think when they first started. This is why there are so many dead blogs on the web. But remember, success is a marathon, not a sprint. So don't give up.

nitation might be of good help here. Hopefully he sees this and posts here.

Note: Your post is very vague. It's like me asking you to write on "Agriculture in Nigeria". You need to narrow it down so those in the know can assist you better.

Good luck!

Who said your idea for an online community won't work?

http://www.businessinsider.com/uh-oh-white-house-seeks-economic-advice-from-twitter-2009-3

Twitter cofounder and CEO Ev Williams is headed to the White House today.

The administration invited him to join a “young business leaders" summit to discuss the economic crises.

As Ev himself puts it -- in a Twitter message, of course -- "[this] must mean they're *really* out of ideas."

A reminder: With 6 million members and 700% plus growth, Twitter makes no money in the US. (It sells some ads in Japan).

lets both join hands and lets discourage people using this table to position layouts coz it has alot of disadvantages! you know ?

On this crusade, I don't mind contributing my fair share

segsa,

If I view your source, copy that, and then view teh contents of this file:
http://www.segsalerty.com/res/styles.css

Less images, I believe I can recreate your site, verbatim. For images, again, I just "save web page complete" and I get html, css, javascript and images.

Again, does that mean the developers are good developers?  I agree with JAMB being at fault only as far as them not insisting of a Statement of Work (SOW).  Whereby JAMB didn't ask for one, I won't let the developers off the hook by saying they didn't have to provide one either.

As far as you standing up to your project manager and saying 6 months, I tip my hat to you.  That shows that you actually thought it out:  Not only with respect to time but you also gave reasons for the timeframe. There are some, probably even amongst us here, who, in an attempt to prove what they think they know, would offer to do the job in 3 days.  Your thought process is one of the signs of a good web developer in my books 

I respectfully disagree but another question: what if I save the entire site via "save as"?

I agree with the xhtml part but I am a bit confused about the "use CSS cos it prevents people from stealing your code" part.

I mean, all I have to do is view source, copy the path to your files, paste in the address bar and view it. Heck, if you use FF and have the web developer toolkit plug in, you can view (and edit) the styles in place. how do I know? My first XHTML/CSS site, done in 2005, was implemented this way - Yep, I went to a site I liked, did all I have mentioned above, made a few modifications (color, graphics, etc) and I was up and running in no time. Of course, I later went back and actually read up on xhtml/css and that helped solidify what I had learned by reverse engineering.

Make sense?

Neptune,

Here is where I am coming from. Hopefully, this addresses all the issues you have laid out. If not, let me know.  On an issue like this though, I am willing to agree to disagree

Let's take the JAMB site.  Based on what I have read on the site of the "webmasters", they have 23 years combined experience in web development.  That is all good and dandy.  Look and feel of site is okay.  Could be better though but I am willing to cut them some slack.  If you are a regular visitor to this board, you will know that there are at least a couple threads that deal with "JAMB and their wahala" and these posts generate a lot of traffic. 

Question(s):
- Did they get the job done? Yes
- Did they use latest web trends at the time the site was done? No
- Does the site function as designed (granted it is confusing to the user)? Yes
- Does their work, based on what I see, make sense? Yes
- Does their work reflect a well thought out process (Did they do load testing? Did they do quality assurance? Did they do any security testing?)? No (at least to me).

My point:
I have known people with 4.0 GPAs who based on "their works" should get any job they want.  However, some of such people end up failing during interviews OR they get the job but can't cope because they are unable to work with others as they feel their approach is the best.  On the other hand, I know people who have low GPAs yet not only get a job but get paid more than the smarter ones.  Why? Thought process.

Of course I can't speak for the Nigerian context, but that is how it is done in my locale.  For example: I have been asked at an interview, "how to build an elevator?"  By the way, IMHO, this has nothing to do with what I will be doing at the company.  The quick and "smart" answer is, "you get concrete, some rods, you get guys who know how to do the job, etc".  The better answer is, "hmmm, let me see (you feign thought).  How many stories will the building be (cos if it is just one storey, there is no need to build an elevator)? Ok, 3 storeys? What will the building be used for (if it's an office, I can design it to carry 10 people, otherwise, I might have to increase the number)?".  You see where I am going? The former way of tackling the issue tells me that even in life, you rush to make decisions.  Sure, your answer might be correct but it reflects that you act first and think second.

I have often said that if I were to conduct interviews in Nigeria or even look for someone to do something for me via NL, I would care less about their portfolio, clients served, what they use for coding (DW, notepad, etc), etc.  All I have to do is ask 3 or so questions and I would know who to hire.  Of course, I care about portfolio, clients served, etc but that is secondary.  If I like how you think, I can always call you back for a second round of interviewing where I check the other stuff out.

I hope I have made sense.

To me, none of the above. It's their thought process. This you can learn by asking verbally how they tackle a problem and by examining their code. A good web developer also stays on top of latest web dev trends and isn't shy about experimenting with them, as opposed to sticking with the tried-and-true processes.

The other stuff you have mentioned, IMHO, are by-products of being a good web developer. I mean, I can have 1,000 comments but use 1,000 embedded tables on each of those clients websites. Does that make me a good web developer? I don't think so.

These links should steer you in the right direction

Good luck!

http://www.wavestreaming.com/articles/how-to-start-an-internet-radio-station.php

http://radio.about.com/od/createinternetradio/How_To_Create_Your_Own_Streaming_Internet_Radio_Station.htm

http://radio.about.com/cs/latestradionews/a/aa011804a.htm

http://music.lovetoknow.com/How_To_Start_An_Internet_Radio_Station

http://www.iliketunes.com/stationguide.asp

you'll be suprised to know how jobless alot of people are.

he he. Neptune, e b like say na you start am?

oga cactus,

How's the decision-making going? What's the latest?

Let us know. Others might be following in your footsteps